2010
05.02

When you get into Montenegro you soon realize why here the deepest canyon in Europe can be found, huge mountains surround you just after crossing the border. As a kayaker going through Montenegro and not going down the Tara river made no sense.

The video is in memory of David, who lost his life paddling two months ago in the Vez river. I know he’d enjoyed the descent and that he’d laugh at the video so here it is.

If the video downloads slow click over HD to deactivate high definition video.

Fortunately the Tara is protected by Durmitor National Park. Apart from the river you can find a beautiful steep, forest where you feel like getting lost and brutal mountains where you can even go skiing…

Saying that the Tara is the deepest canyon in Europe may not mean much to many people so here are some numbers to give you an idea.
The canyon is 1300m deep, the bridge from where I recorded is 150m high.
Probably the best canyon to compare in depth is the Colorado. The Colorado is 1300m deep on the south shore and 1600m on the north shore, the difference is that the Colorado canyon is much longer 375km in the park and the Tara is 60km.
Even though they are not the deepest canyons in the world, the deepest is in Colca in Peru which is 4160m deep.

We left the Tara and went to eat the country’s specialty, lamb cooked slowly in milk, even that it sounds good it doesn’t look or taste that good.

Despite the fact that I said I’d only post a video from Montenegro I’m going to post some pictures before telling you how things are going in Albania. There are things and I haven’t captured on Video properly as I´m not very experienced with it, but I’m learning a lot, for example I’ve learned that if Aitor is having fun driving you can’t try to record steady from the car.

See you soon
Fernando

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  1. […] orthodox nun a few weeks earlier with Silvia and Aitor. There are two videos in which she appears this one and this other […]

  2. […] mi ruta de la seda » Montenegro video III. Kayak &#1110&#1495 t&#1211&#1077 Tara canyon. […]

  3. Hola Fer, no sabia mucho de tí y Tebol me ha puesto al tanto de esta movida.

    El rio Tara, efectivamente, uno de los ríos clásicos considerados como de los más dificiles de Europa. En los 70, el grupo de Polacos Canoandes lo descendieron por primera vez, y les sirvio como referencia para la mayor expedición piragüista de todos los tiempos, que comenzaron al año siguiente y que duró 2 años bajando ríos por todo sudamerica y finalizando en el Colca, en aquel momento el Cañón más profundo del planeta.

    En la actualidad, está en duda todos los datos que comentas, por la dificultad que supone medir la profundidad de un valle o si es o no un cañón.
    Se considera el valle más profundo del planeta el Bramaputra cuando pasa de Tibet a India al lado del Jala Peri (5000m de desnivel) y el cañón más profundo, es decir, el que tiene forma de cañón no se si has tenido oportunidad de verlo porque has pasado cerca, en el norte de Grecia, la Garganta Vicos, apenas 1000m de desnivel, pero creo que la brecha es tan solo de 300m de ancho. (no estoy muy seguro de este ultimo dato)